Taiwanese arrive in Hanoi to attend promotional event

Staff writer, with CNA, HANOI

Thu, Apr 18, 2013 - Page 4

A group of Taiwanese businesspeople arrived in Hanoi yesterday to attend an international travel fair and promote Taiwan’s tourist attractions.

The 23-member delegation, consisting of representatives of tour agencies, hotels, leisure farms and specialty stores, and led by Tony Wu (巫宗霖), director of the Kuala Lumpur office of Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau, will take part in the 2013 Hanoi International Travel Exhibition and Trade Fair today and tomorrow.

The delegation plans to showcase popular Taiwanese electronic products, food and natural scenery to Vietnamese consumers a spokesman for the group said.

Taiwan and Vietnam signed a memorandum of understanding in May last year to forge cooperation in the promotion of tourism exchanges.

In November last year, the two countries held a bilateral conference in Taipei on tourism cooperation in which representatives from both sides exchanged views on issues concerning investment, personnel training and special tour packages, according to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Hanoi.

Statistics from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism show that last year, Taiwanese made 409,385 visits to Vietnam, representing 13.39 percent growth from the previous year and making Taiwan Vietnam’s fifth-largest source of tourists.

Meanwhile, over 90,000 Vietnamese traveled to Taiwan last year for sightseeing, up 40 percent from the previous year, the data showed.

The two countries have also decided to hold a second Taiwan-Vietnam Tourism Cooperation Conference in Vietnam in the fourth quarter of this year.

Exchanges between Taiwan and Vietnam have become more frequent over the past two decades. Currently, there are 100,000 Vietnamese working in Taiwan, 100,000 Vietnamese who are married to Taiwanese, and nearly 5,000 Vietnamese students in the nation, the TECO said.